PROBLEM

Technology enabled our access to the digital realm and rapidly expanded its dimension, yet the rules of how we relate to our parallel digital universe and its integration with our physical environment and reality have not developed in the same rate. Our interfaces to the digital universe remain constrictive,  sustaining a tenuous gap between our physical and digital realities. I seek to explore means of redefining our relationship with our digital universe by going beyond the screen and creating innovative interfaces that can  integrate physical and digital elements for a more intuitive understanding and interaction with the digital world.

1 week project developed for Across RCA Gamification workshop 2015.

INTERVENTION

• Prototype of an innovative interface that translates physical artefacts into digital elements through shadows.
• By use of a very low-tech and low-cost hardware & software setup we designed a game where the player can build the game environment through shadows formed by any object; from lego blocks to coffee cups and even the players' themselves.
• The landscape for game characters to jump and run on, protection barriers in tower defence and many other game elements are fabricated on the spot by shadows.
• Each player can create their own tailored game world. 
• The game naturally became an interface for multiplayer gaming and collaborative creativity  where multiple players would combine their shadows to corporate in progressing to the next level. 
• The game was exhibited in the Royal College of Art, where it attracted a plethora of visitors who avidly and enthusiastically played through all the levels of the game, both in groups and as individual players.
• The accessible technology and low cost of the SKIA interface render it a design solution that can have multiple applications in the context of educational toys and more broadly in enhanced reality via intuitive interactions between the physical and digital world.